DATELINE: SURAKARTA
Your humble correspondent is writing to you today from the central Javanese court city of Surakarta, also known as Solo. However let not that name be misleading, for if ever there was a place in which one is unlikely to spend much time "going solo" -- in other words, alone -- this would be it. This must surely be the friendliest little city to be found anywhere, and it's like that 24 hours a day. If one should feel lonely, or hungry, or just restless at 2 or 3 in the morning -- just going out to find a tasty glass of coffee or iced tea, some chicken sate or another of the variety of delicacies sold from little canvas covered warung street stalls, always meets with success. For along with one's tea and toasted tempeh, you can always count on finding some friendly conversation under the warm light of oil lamp or candle -- and if one is lucky the proprietor might even have a transistor tuned to the all night wayang performance, and the chiming tones of the gamelan orchestra add an extra dimension to the intoxicating atmosphere. This is the quality of Solo which gave it the nickname, Kota yang tak pernah tidur -- the "City which never sleeps".

I will be here until Saturday, when it will be the Argo Lawu Express overnight back to Jakarta, in time to fly home to Bangkok on Sunday. After all, no point in passing time in the noisy, hectic and smoky capital, when I can pass the time here instead. That might sound funny to some ("Wait a minute, isn't Bangkok noisy, hectic and smoky as well?") ... Yes, very true, but it's a lot better than it used to be. Jakarta beats Krung Thep in the unbelievable traffic jam department as well as the noise and air pollution departments nowadays, and after all, home is home. Jakarta would be almost unliveable I think, except for the fact that it's full of friendly Indonesian people, and it is they who make it bearable.

Of course it goes without saying, that the qualities that Agam finds so appealing in most Indonesian people -- tolerance of differences, an open and friendly attitude toward strangers -- is not quite universal. So one of the issues most talked about in recent days here has been the return of certain intolerant activities, as has become all too common in the last few years during the month of Ramadan. Certain Islamist groups are determined that if they are going to limit their desires for a month, then nobody else is going to have any fun either. So under the pretext of making sure that everybody "respects the holy month" they go about in bands to chase patrons out of bars and cafes that are deemed as potentially "sinful", and maybe smash up a few billiard halls to boot. Not that shooting some pool is necessarily equivalent to gambling, but it might be, and that's enough for these boneheads.

My friends here in Solo often say how disgusted they are with such behaviour in the name of their religion, at seeing such people making a show of pretending to be "pure" with their turbans and other Arab-like fashions to display their piety and "Muslim-ness" -- while destroying the property of others and closing down the workplaces of thousands of fellow Muslims. Where in al Qur'an does it condone the destruction of another's property, achieved by his own work and sweat? Not to mention the families of those who now have no jobs, and therefore no paycheck with which to feed their families during the "holy month" -- and especially when the Great Day at the end of Ramadan rolls around and one is expected to buy one's children nice new clothes, and the special dishes for the feasts on Lebaran? This is equivalent to Christmas for Muslims -- and just imagine if virtually all service workers in the entertainment spots of a Western country had to lose their jobs (and paychecks) for a whole month running up to the Christmas holiday.

There is an Islamist group called the FPI (Front Pembela Islam or "Islamic Defenders Front") which has been engaging in this nonsense every Ramadan for the past few years. But like my friend here says, "when there's flooding or some other emergency in Jakarta that requires volunteers to help, they're nowhere to be seen." The past few nights they've gone on a rampage in some entertainment areas of the capital, to make sure that everyone remains suitably pious -- Muslim or not. Well finally the newly installed Attorney General has had something to say about it, and hopefully it will give the police some backbone to take action against them. It's really pathetic to see how these thugs have been treated with kid gloves, simply because they use their overt religous piety as a shield. Police seem unwilling to get rough, but after some tough words from the minister concerned, I expect we might be seeing some arrests and prosecutions of the FPI leadership in the near future. The new A-G seems to be a no nonsense guy, and this is a very welcome attitude, according to many people I've talked to. He's apparently planning to reopen some dormant corruption cases against previously powerful figures, announced that he will be putting as a top priority the capture of the Malaysian fugitive terrorist bomber Dr. Azahari, and now made clear that he's not going to stand for any more of this FPI nonsense. It's about bloody time. And if catching Dr. Azahari wasn't a top priority for the last government, then somebody should have some 'splainin' to do.

There have also been some demonstrations in the capital and a couple of other urban centres in the past two days, demanding that the new government scrap the current constitution and install Islamic Sharia law for the country. Well a few hundred piously attired (turbans for men, jilbab for the women -- neither of which are traditional Indonesian articles of dress) demonstrators might look impressive from certain camera angles on the evening news, but these sentiments have limited appeal to the wider population. With signs reading "The People are Longing for Sharia Law" and "Join Together to End Secularlism" -- all I can do is wonder where these people live... perhaps in closed, like-minded communities. Because otherwise surely they would realise that "The People" at large are longing for no such thing. What "The People" are longing for is for somebody to get the economy rolling again, get some projects going that can hire workers, a government that can restore a sense of security so that investment can start creating some jobs. That's what people are longing for, and I have no idea how Qur'anic Law and stamping out secularism and tolerance for minorities' religious traditions will be particularly useful in this area.

Virtually everyone I know in this country -- and this is typical of people from all walks of life -- rejoice in the phenomenal diversity of their country. Diverse in religious traditions, diverse in cultures, diverse in languages -- everyone is quite well aware that these are strengths and not weaknesses. The silly desire of some minority of Muslims to stamp out this incredible variety and gentle tolerance, and force it all into a mold of their own narrow preference, just has no traction with the general population as far as I can tell. And I sincerely hope it remains that way.

If by some far fetched possibility, this country ever came to be ruled by religious fundamentalists of the Taliban sort, all the life would have been robbed from it and it would then cease to be a place worth visiting. And that would be an incomprehensible loss, so I am glad to report that such an eventuality remains well outside the realm of possibility.

I must not neglect to make one correction to something I wrote last week from Jakarta. I had said that Solo, in addition to being a centre of central Javanese culture (the Court of Surakarta being known for its refinement of music and performance styles), is also the home base of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir and his fundamentalist pesantren known as Ngruki. Indeed, as I wrote earlier, the people of this city are not happy with the association -- and my good friend Hary has now enabled me to make a correction. The Ngruki school is in fact located at the edge of Solo's city limits, in the neighbouring district of Sukoharjo. So we can truthfully state that the old fanatic imam and his intolerant teachings are not based in Solo at all -- we can pin it on Sukoharjo instead.

By the way, Ba'asyir is due for another court appearance in Jakarta (on Thursday, I think) so it will be interesting to see what mischief his followers get into for the occasion. I hope and expect that the police will be in the courtroom in force, and be unwilling to stand for any of the rowdy nonsense that embarassingly made them look like such wimps the last time. A little pep talk from the new, tough minded Attorney General may be all that's required. "Look, you can arrest anyone who disrupts the courtroom -- whether he's wearing a turban or not." It should really go without saying, but unfortunately even police have seemed willing to be intimidated just by a silly little turban sometimes.
- posted by Agam @ 11:56 AM 0 comments

 
DATELINE: JAKARTA
Your loyal correspondent here, checking in from the Indonesian capital. And a historic day it was, with the swearing-in of the first popularly elected president and his cabinet. I didn't get a chance to see the ceremony on television, but had my main question about it answered this afternoon by a young fellow at Gambir train station. I was chatting with a couple of guys at the left baggage counter, and was told that the ceremony had happened already this morning. I would have been on a bus at the time, making the arduous trip from far out in East Jakarta to the Thai embassy in Central. When I asked him whether Ibu Megawati had been present on the occasion, the answer was, "No," along with a disappointed shake of the head. I was surprised a few days ago to pick up a newspaper, and find that she still had not congratulated Pak Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on his decisive electoral victory -- well after the offical results were announced two weeks ago. As I wrote before, everyone knew the result on election night itself, which was a month ago already.

I think people generally will feel quite disappointed with Mega, and I feel she has done more damage to her image than with anything she might have done as president. In my opinion, the nation has been cheated out of an opportunity to have a good and honourable transfer of authority, a precedent which -- as it is the very first done with the people's mandate -- will only come around once. Mega has shown herself to be not very clued in to democratic principles, or indeed the simple matter of how to lose graciously. For her to not even show up for Pak Susilo's swearing-in after all this stubborn silence, is just simply childish. She may be Sukarno's daughter, but she appears to have none of his sense of statesmanship.

Well so much for that. I don't know who SBY has chosen for his cabinet, but I think he's doing as much as he can to ensure clean people will be in his government. He said a few days ago that he was inviting anyone to come forward with any reservations or concerns about any of his potential ministers. If there are indications of corrupt practices in their past, he wouldn't hesitate to drop them from the line-up. Hopefully this is a sign for the future, for clean government is right near the top of pretty much everybody's wish list.

So Agam has been in Jakarta for five days now, having arrived on the very first day of Ramadan. I had known it was coming, but hadn't checked my lunar calendar -- and in fact the start of the fasting month had only been officially set for last Friday, only very late on Thursday night. I've been staying with the eldest brother of my good friend Uddin -- the only one of the five brothers I hadn't met until now. Uddin was lost almost five years ago now, and with the martial law in Aceh I'm unable to visit the remaining family there. So it was good to spend a little time with his oldest brother Azly, who lives in East Jakarta with his wife and three kids, along with some other Tapaktuan people. The only problem for me was being so far from Jakarta Central, and taking hours just to get anywhere by public transport. The massive traffic jams and totally inadequate public transportation system make any kind of commuting a tedious ordeal, and the stoic Jakartans who have to do it every day have my full sympathy. The situation reminds me of Bangkok about 10 years ago -- 80% of the buses should rightfully go directly to the junk heap.

Ramadan is the fasting month, but of course it isn't a month long fast. As one of the people at home the other night pointed out, it is just rearranging the time we eat. Agam naturally joined the "fast" as well (I'd been in Tapaktuan during Ramadan a few years ago too, and "fasted" with Mother and Father at their home). We must eat our breakfast before the pre-dawn prayer time (Suhur), and not eat or drink anything until after Maghrib (the after sunset prayer time). During this time of the year, it means getting up about 3:30am for your last chance to eat, and then going to about 5:45pm before consuming anything more. Well I'm not Muslim of course, but I do like to follow it along with my hosts when I'm staying in their home. I left there this morning, and will take the train to Solo this evening from Gambir station. So after checking my bag there this afternoon, I felt quite ready to find a warung and ordered a nice lunch of nasi pecel and iced tea. Well, travellers are not expected to adhere to the fast anyway, heh heh. And it's been so long since I've had a nice nasi pecel.

Last night I went with Azly to his office, where they have internet. Checked up on the latest news, and there were some surprises. First of all, the situation in Burma is getting murkier with a very surprising deposing of the so-called "prime minister". Once the strongman of the intelligence service, Gen. Khin Nyunt was moved last year from his position as one of the 3 powerful "Secretaries" to become the so called Prime Minister. It was judged at the time to be a demotion, but he was seen as the least hardline of the ruling junta -- so there were some possibilities for democratic progress. Apparently he has been placed under house arrest, and power has now been consolidated by the aging hardliner, Than Shwe. Not very promising, other then the hope that any sort of shakeup might have unintended consequences, maybe a rebellion of more progressive forces in the military, or even just to wake up the outside world to the dire situation. Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest more than a year after concerted pressure was exerted by the international community and especially ASEAN. After the ambush and massacre of her supporters in May 2003, I don't think anyone expected that they would be continuing to hold her after that October. Now another October has come and gone, and the whole thing seems to have been forgotten. This is what Thaksin's insistence on constructive engagement achieves -- absolutely nothing.

And a very sad situation in Thailand as I read last night, with something like 23 tigers at one of the tiger parks having died of "bird flu". What a travesty that these animals could be fed with the carcasses of chickens which had died from this disease. If it was a stupid mistake that would be bad enough, and it should never have happened. But if it was another of those cases where some shady deal and desire for saving money to make bigger profit blah blah blah, switch these old chicken carcasses for the tigers' usual food instead of burning them in a pit -- well, you know, use your imagination. If it was something like that and not just a stupid mistake, then I hope they track down the shameless idiots that did it an prosecute them to the fullest.

Well that's all for this time, from your roving correspondent enroute in a couple of hours to the city of Solo, Central Java, aboard the Argo Lawu express. Solo, the city that never sleeps, and in my own experience the friendliest little city in all the world. Yet paradoxically, it's also the home base of the fanatic old imam, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir and his pesantren (Indonesian Islamic boarding school) known as "Ngruki". Several of the Bali bombers originated from Solo as well. Which is, as I say, a paradox since I've only ever come across the most gentle, tolerant and generous people one can imagine in that beautiful city. In many visits over almost 15 years, and having met many people of all walks of life, I truly cannot recall ever having met one of those boneheaded intolerant jihadist types. Obviously they must be there somewhere, but it's just a shame that Solo should be tarred with that negative addition to its reputation as the focus of a highly refined central Javanese culture.
- posted by Agam @ 4:44 PM 0 comments

 
HIATUS
Agam will be even less productive than usual in the coming weeks, due to being away from the home office. A trip to Indonesia is in order, and it might get me motivated to write more when I get back. Motivation noticeably lacking last week, when I'd intended to write some more post Indo-election news -- although it was also the tail end of a period of holding down the fort here while the boss was out of town. I may or may not have the opportunity / inclination to blog from Jakarta or elsewhere on the Java isle.

I am looking forward to meeting one of my Tapaktuan family who lives in the capital, the only one of the immediate family who I haven't met personally yet. Unfortunately, although Mother and Father sometimes visit and stay for several months at a time, I think they will be in Aceh when I'm in there.

PASSING THE TORCH, PART II
I wrote before about the lack of an unseemly rush to claim victory in Indonesia's first popular election of a president, the willingness to go along with the incumbent Megawati's call for the nation to wait until the official result would be announced. Well now I feel she's pushing this a little bit too far, and the impression is inescapably one of an individual who is clutching and clinging to her exalted status just a little too stubbornly.

The "official result" was indeed announced by the independent Election Commission exactly one week ago today. It was due out on the 5th of the month, but the counting and all procedures were duly completed ahead of time, so they made the offical announcement as the Commission's final act in its present incarnation. Remarkably, the complete final tally came in almost spot on with the results of the unofficial "Quick Count" -- which is a kind of exit poll if I understand it correctly -- on election night itself. The final result differed by 0.4% from the Quick Count, in SBY's favour.

So last Monday's afternoon and dinner hour news broadcasts were full of excitement, as people seemed to be looking forward to seeing the next public act of this new democratic procedure, one they'd been actually waiting for since voting day 2 weeks earlier. Commentators on panel discussions talked about how this was handled in more developed democracies, and the underlying symbolism of the concession speech of one leader, followed by the victory speech from the other. All during this two week period, Pak Susilo was very discrete with word and action, receiving well wishers at his home (and they kept coming even after the "open house" was ended). A few hours after the Commission's official report, everyone expected Pak Susilo at long last, to finally accept the mandate his people had given him as their new prsident. Of course, being a gentleman, he would wait until Ibu Mega had made her public statement first.

Reporters stationed at Megawati's residence weren't even sure if she was home. Eventually her cavalcade entered the grounds, with some of her party officials tagging along, and there were apparently inner sanctum confabs that needed to be held first. At SBY's house the atmosphere was still welcoming to all, and a happy mood permeated the crowds of ordinary folks, who just kept on arriving in hopes to hear what "Bapak Presiden" would have to say. Megawati's place still looked dark, like nobody's home, except for the poor bored reporters waiting at the gate. I think he sensed the impatience, and perhaps wanting to give his opponent a gentle nudge, Pak Susilo emerged at last from his home and sat outdoors with his people in the pendopo -- a large covered pavillion favoured by Javanese for their homes. At least this was my reading of it -- he wanted to have this done the right way, and he wanted to let Mega take the lead. It was his way of saying, "I'm ready, but you first." Of course she had her TV on like everyone else did that night, but eventually an assistant came out and told the reporters that she would have no further comment that night. Pak Susilo mingled with the folks at his home but had no real public comments.

The following day was the birthday of the Armed Forces. Megawati was there of course, to view the parades and flypast etc., and Susilo was present as well. She made a speech, and she still didn't concede the election, only mentioning something about how the people were the true winners, no matter who would be selected to lead. It looks like she intends to push this all the way to the swearing in on Oct. 20! In other words, no concession from her, and no opportunity for SBY to accept the people's mandate, congratulate her graciously as is his style, or any of that good, inspiring democratic spirit of goodwill and honourable competition which fair elections are supposed to engender. I feel quite disappointed with her, as though she has robbed her people of one of the significant stages in a proper, and open electoral process.

I'm sure that many of her fellow citizens will have noticed Saturday's election in Australia, and will have seen that the challenger Mark Latham had conceded his defeat on election night, opening the way for John Howard to make his acceptance speech immediately after. When it's clear who won and who lost -- and Howard actually picked up seats in this election -- then it's no shame to admit the fact. Waiting for recounts or official tallies when they won't make any difference, just appears stubborn. And that's exactly what Ibu Megawati is leaving for her final memory, in my opinion. She was 20 million votes behind SBY at the end, she had less than 40% in the final count, and she had less than 40% on election night. Everyone knew she had lost it, on that first evening. But everyone was also ready to give her her space. Such a shame that she couldn't reciprocate.
- posted by Agam @ 7:56 PM 0 comments

 
TRUE NORTH: HOW STRONG, HOW FREE?
I very much hope that the Canadian government doesn't display the same limp, wishy-washy attitude in its current diplomatic stand-off with the PRC, that it did a few months ago with the Iranian mullah-cracy following the murder -- almost certainly by officers of that government -- of a Iranian-Canadian journalist (and the sham trial which followed). Today in Beijing, more than forty North Korean refugees successfully entered the Canadian Embassy in an effort to seek asylum. It was an audacious bid for freedom, considering how tight the Chinese have made security around all foreign embassies, clamping down on these embarrassing incidents after several highly publicised occasions -- one of which saw Chinese security officers tackling and wrestling with a cute little 4 year-old girl in pigtails. Immortalised on video, and they hate that.

North Koreans live in fear within China, even though they must breathe a huge sigh of relief when they reach it from North Korea. Fleeing from probably the sickest totalitarianism anywhere at this time, these people are categorised by Chinese authorities simply as illegal aliens, and if caught they are turned back to the brutes they are trying to save themselves from. China leads by example, as it demands the same policy from other neighbour countries who might happen to catch a band of Tibetans hiking over the Himalaya into freedom. Nepal has frequently obliged them, and the refoulement of Tibetan refugees generally sees them transported directly into Chinese detention camps. We can only imagine where the returned North Koreans might be destined. China is well-versed in both sides of this refoulement stuff.

It sounds like it was a pretty straighforward plan: everybody dresses up in workmen's clothes, hard hats, maybe a few paint tins to make it look good, and plenty of ladders. The tall iron fence at Canada's mission looks like it needs a paint job -- wham, bam, and over the top! Only one out of (I think) 45, didn't make it. Some people got hurt on the spikes, but it was practically a total success. Now let's see Canada stand for something, and use her fabled diplomatic skill and political influence to make sure these people find the freedom they have risked so much for. China has demanded that the Canadians turn over the "illegal aliens" to them, so they could be deported back to their country for a severe, ummm, regrooving. Surely this cannot happen, it's a no-brainer, right? I wish I could be confident. The Martin government must honour its responsibility to protect, and get these people out of China as soon as possible.

TIBETAN GOVERNMENT ENVOYS ON THIRD VISIT TO CHINA
At long last, the Tibetan government representatives who engaged in two earlier breakthrough visits to the PRC, have now returned for a third mission. As before, it has been coordinated in a very quiet way, with China confirming their presence late last week. As on the previous occasions, we can't expect to hear much until the Tibetans have returned to India, but this comes at an opportune time.

Chinese President Hu Jin Tao has only recently seen previous strongman Jiang Zhemin safely out the back door, as the latter had held on to his chairmanship of the military authority. Only with that problem out of the way, could Hu be considered to have a free hand to make policy. Which direction this might take remains a mystery, since even at this late date few China watchers will hazard a quess at what his actual views are on political reform. For the first time in his climb up the ladder of Party leadership, Hu isn't in anyone's shadow. Of Tibet, he is quite familiar -- he served as Party Chairman in Tibet during a period of frequent unrest and relentless suppression of Tibetan nationalism, between 1988 and 1992. He had a rough time with the altitude, and actually spent very little time in Lhasa. He was the top man in Tibet, from his home in Beijing. His hard line policy in Tibet worked well enough for his political currency in the elite circles, and he became Jiang's hand picked successor.

Also interesting in this mix -- the European Union is sending an official delegation to Tibet right about now, the first in six years. The last time they visited Tibet, there was an inspection of the notorious Drapchi Prison in Lhasa. The prisoners organised a protest, hoping to communicate to the Euopeans. Somehow the Chinese were able to keep the delegation unaware of the situation, which was crushed by the Peoples Armed Police with extreme prejudice. Eleven prisoners are believed to have died in punishments that continued for weeks. Apparently the Euros are not visiting Drapchi his time.

If Hu is thinking to do something with the Tibet issue as a way of improving China's dismal human rights image before the 2008 Olympics (as I very much hope he is), he'll have to get started soon. This is the third occasion for direct face to face meetings, but they have yet to get out of the confidence-building stage. The first delegation of Tibetan envoys visited China almost exactly two years ago. They are willing to go as often, and meet their Chinese counterparts as much as China is willing to allow. It's the Chinese who are limiting the contact, permitting a visit when they choose. At this rate, Hu won't be able to accomplish much in time for China's big show.

It was great to read some of Victor Davis Hanson's latest pieces this week, about two of the things that I've been writing about lately -- the ineffectual United Nations and the self-parody that some have begun referring to as the "legacy newsmedia". And in two of these articles he reminded his readers of Tibet. I very much appreciate someone who is willing to bring up the subject, even when it isn't on the newspages of the day. In wondering (as I did myself last week), what use is the UN, Hanson includes this passage:

The contemporary UN, then, has become not only hypocritical, but also a bully that hectors Israel about the West Bank, but gives a pass to a nuclear, billion-person China after swallowing Tibet.

Thanks, Victor. My high esteem for you goes up another notch. This is a very strong piece which should be read in conjunction with David Brooks' right on target masterpiece on the UN and Darfur:

Every time there is an ongoing atrocity, we watch the world community go through the same series of stages: (1) shock and concern (2) gathering resolve (3) fruitless negotiation (4) pathetic inaction (5) shame and humiliation (6) steadfast vows to never let this happen again.

The "never again" always comes. But still, we have all agreed, this sad cycle is better than having some impromptu coalition of nations actually go in "unilaterally" and do something. That would lack legitimacy! Strain alliances! Menace international law! Threaten the multilateral ideal!

VDH also has excellent articles up on John Kerry's foreign policy and the media thing. The latest news on the Tibetan envoys trip to China will, as always, be found at Phayul News.

IYAD ALLAWI VISITS HIS ALLIES
I was very keen to listen to what Dr. Allawi would have to say to the various audiences he addressed in the past week. And thanks to the miracle of modern technology, I was able to listen to him speak to the UN General Assembly, to the joint session of US Congress, a gaggle of legacy media pop stars in President Bush's rose garden, and just last night with the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. Those who are opposing the global Islamic terrorist movement could not wish for a stronger or more comitted ally. It's not simply his evident toughness, but also his clearly stated moral principle which impress -- his address to Congress was quite moving in many places.

I wanted to cheer when he repeatedly rebuked the western media for their one-sided coverage of his country. Yes the kidnappings and beheadings, yes the suicide bombers and sabotage (and all the children the vile animals killed yesterday in their well-timed bombs) -- but where do people find out about the rest of the story? It's not there. He spoke in detail about advances and progress in many fields, from economy to services, from education to employment, from ongoing local elections to the upcoming national ones, and plenty more. He is the president of the country, he lives there, had only been away a few days, and the spectacle of those pop stars in the rose garden telling him that he really didn't know what he was talking about (while most of them probably haven't been outside the "beltway" for years) provided a nearly surrealistic moment. One could see how astounded he was, having these spoiled primps telling him what they knew was the definitive truth about his own country -- when he is risking his life every single day that he carries out his duties

But as silly as the media jerks were acting in the garden, John Kerry and his party and campaign flacks were behaving with absolutely disgusting carelessness. Have they been studying the book, "All the Things You Must Never Do During Wartime"? Here comes the leader of the country on the absolute front line of the struggle, who despite the mortal danger and extremely difficult situation, remains steadfast and shoulder to shoulder with us. Kerry is insulting him before he even arrived at the UN, casting the whole visit and all the engagements as simply a Bush campaign ploy. If the message wasn't clear enough, good old Joe Lockhart took time out from his strategic consultations with CBS journalists and forged document purveyors, to quip, "Hey look, you can see the hand under the shirt making his lips move!" What a pathetic bunch. While Kerry's own sister is down in Australia, attempting to affect their election by telling Aussies that they bring on terrorist attacks upon themselves (Sari Club in Bali, Aus embassy in Jakarta) by allying with the US. First of all that's nonsense, Bin Laden's fatwa against Australia long predates the Iraq war -- and so does the Bali bombing. Second, she has no damn business down there campaigning for Mark Latham. And third, does Abu Musab al Zarqawi have anything to do with writing her talking points?

Senator Lurch has been doing this for a while, another fine example of him not knowing which side to take. He will fight a more "sensitive" war on terror, bring in all sorts of allies that don't like us right now, because he's like more diplomatic you know? So the world will rush to become allies of America under John Fauntleroy Kerry, because he would respect them. And so on. At another point in the same speeches, he would denigrate all the 30+ nations of the coalition allies by dubbing them as a pathetic group of "coerced and bribed". Oh, and he intends to begin withdrawal of forces within six months. What a way to win friends and influence people! Prime Minister Allawi last night said that, "calls for early withdrawal are music to the ears of the terrorists and insurgents." Iyad, it's a shame that you even should need to tell these people that. I can almost hear Homer Simpson going "D'oh! I knew that!"

Last night on the Indonesian newscast, they reported 2 Indonesian women among the latest 10 foreign hostages seized by terrorists in Iraq. One of the Iraqi bloggers estimated that for every foreign person kidnapped in Iraq, many more Iraqis are being nabbed for ransom. Potentially valuable political pawns are sold on up the ladder, from criminal gangs to the more ideological ones. These are serious problems because this is a serious fight -- and evidently when certain "leaders" are faced with such a reality, have a tendency of offering encouragement to the enemy along with disaster and doom for his own side. Mr. Kerry didn't care much 30 years ago whether all Southeast Asia fell under communism, and his attitude toward his country's allies, and her enemies, doesn't seem to have changed much since.

Last week I tried to describe something of what I saw as the damage to a "national psyche" which results from extended brutal submission to regimes of absolute fear -- and here comes Arthur Chrenkoff again with his Good News From Iraq Part 11, wherein he dubs it "Post-Totalitarian Stress Disorder":

For the Westerners, it is a difficult condition to understand. We take so many things for granted - from comedians being able to joke about the President, to the assumption that the next government employee we encounter will not be expecting a bribe from us - that we are quite ill equipped to fully comprehend what life under a totalitarian system must really be like, much less what mental and spiritual legacy its victims have to labor under long after the statues of the Leader are pulled down.

Arthur knows of that which he speaks, having lived under the Soviet communist rule of his home country, Poland.

CONTRAST
Dr. Allawi made quite a scene at the UN the other day. While Mr. Kerry and sundry other quagmiristas were mocking him as a puppet campaign tool of Bush, he was nonchalantly shaking hands with the representative of Israel. What's the big deal? It's normal isn't it? It's not actually, but he's making it so. The gasps could be heard from Jeddah to Karachi.

That scene was brought to mind when I read an account of Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg on Powerline. I know nothing about Judaism, but to set the scene for this: there is a 10-day period between the Jewish New Year and the Day of Atonement which is sometimes referred to as the "days of awe". Apparently earlier this year, President Bush expressed his wish to meet informally with a diverse group of Jewish spiritual figures during their special days. This little anecdote stood out -- Rabbi Ginsberg speaking:

And then I told him a story that I told over Rosh Hashanah about an elderly volunteer for an Israel organization who said that his passion for volunteering for Israel was driven by the fact that he had been part of a liberating group at at one of the concentration camps. An inmate came up to him and saw his name tag and saw that he was Jewish, and said, "Are you Jewish?" in Yiddish. Expecting a hug from this recently freed inmate, the soldier said, "Yes." Instead of a hug, he got a slap, and the former inmate said "You're too late."

The President looked at me in the eye and said, "Part of my job is to make sure we'll never be too late."

I much prefer to hear this direct and simple conviction, than to hear the whining that "it's all our fault, if we change our evil ways will you please leave us alone?" Why, even long committed pacifists are coming around at last. Former Oregon governor and 30 year Democratic Senator Mark O. Hatfield opposed every single war and voted against every single military expenditure that ever came up in his entire career. He opposed the Bosnia mission, Kosovo, kicking Saddam out of Kuwait, you name it he was against it. September 11 changed the world, says the elderly peacenik today, he supports the effort in Iraq and he says he will proudly vote for George W. Bush next month. Hatfield said, "I know from my service in the Senate that Saddam Hussein was an active supporter of terrorism. He used weapons of mass destruction on innocent people and left no doubt that he would do so again. It was crucial to the cause of world peace that he be removed from power." Wow. First Hitchens, and now Hatfield. Of course they're just indicators of a phenomenon: people with the courage to change their mind.

PASSING THE TORCH, INDONESIAN STYLE
The patience with which Indonesians are playing out the final stage of this transfer of power is really something to behold. Ibu Mega is still the president who has not yet conceded defeat, while Pak Susilo is still the challenger who has not yet claimed victory. Megawati delivered her accountability speech to the final meeting of the People's Consultative Assembly, during which she asked the country to observe the election rules and wait until the official results are announced by the independent Election Commission. And everyone is doing just that. She's been virtually invisible since that day, undoubtedly savouring her last few weeks in Merdeka Palace, while SBY has been holding open house for all at his home in Bogor. Ordinary folks have been pouring in daily to offer best wishes while the president-to-be receives all with equal graciousness -- and with not even so much as a comment on potential cabinet members and such matters. She asked for her time, and he's giving it to her. No need for an unseemly rush.

Some interesting happenings in the political scene have not really been noticed outside the country. Pak Susilo's landslide victory has tossed many of the old political groupings up in the air, and how they settle again will be fun to watch. You see, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has not had any party affiliation at all, until he launched his own new party upon announcing his candidacy just a few months ago. He had served in the cabinets of Gus Dur (Abdurahman Wahid) and Megawati without being affiliated with the party of either. And in his victory, all three of the old time political groupings have, one after the other, appeared to compete in a race for which one will tear itself apart first.

Nowadays of course there are dozens of parties, far too many really for any single country. But this stuff all has to shake out in its own time. But in Suharto's day, only three were legal. His own vehicle was the GOLKAR, Golongan Karya (roughly, Functional Group). A vast system of patronage that tied together the civil service organisations and other social and economic interest groups (including the military) to keep Suharto in power. The symbol is a banyen tree, the colour is yellow, the vote was never less than 75%. The Islamic stream was encompassed by the PPP, United Development Party, the colour is green (what else?) and the symbol is the Ka'aba. Finally the nationalist stream was represented by the PDI, Indonesia Democratic Party, with the colour red and the symbol of a bull. Voting was simple with just three choices, yellow green or red. Yellow always wins, and the smiling general always chose who would be the red and green leaders anyway. Protests took the form known as "Golput", abbreviation for "Golongan Putih", or the "White Group". Which meant that the voter didn't like yellow, green or red, so he or she poked a hole in the white portion of the ballot. For many years, the only form of dissent permitted, was the once every five year chance to "Golput".

When Megawati started coming to the fore of PDI, and finally attaining the leadership, the smiling general engineered a party split which ousted her. The venerable old nationalist party could not be put back together again, and the PDI-P, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle was born. The coup leaders which stole the party from its membership, retained the original identity and name, whereupon they promptly disappeared in shame and were never heard from again. Now some of the top officials of PDI-P are fighting tooth and nail to expel each other at emergency party congresses, GOLKAR members are making noise about taking legal action against the corrupt party chairman, and the green PPP has a faction demanding its chairman to resign (he serves currently for a few more days as Megawati's VP). Exit polls have shown that (of those who agreed to answer questions on election day), the majority of PDI-P people actually voted for SBY. He undoubtedly swept every part of the country, except for Bali which went solidly Mega. Anyway, this is just a cursory thumbnail sketch of the recent political landscape, and the interesting phenomenon of a virtually non-party person coming in and sweeping up the table with support from every side, leaving the most well organised and longstanding party machines trying to put themselves together again.

SBY has always seemed like a decent fellow to me, even while he was still in the army and was known as the intellectual general. I think he's proven himself as a genuine democrat, and has never been accused of the type of misbehaviour that was unfortunately so common with many army officers. He had supported the peace process in Aceh prior to some inexplicable shift in policy which led the president to scuttle the process in May 2003 and launch military operations there. After an extension of military rule in the province ended in May of this year, its status was dropped to "civil emergency". However control is still extremely tight, with outsiders like journalists and international observers (and me!) kept strictly out. I haven't been able to go back since my last visit, which was July 2001.

I very much hope that Pak Susilo will take a new approach with Aceh, and the first step should be to look into a recent report of routine torture of detainees in the province. Under the civil emergency laws, anyone can be held simply on suspicion of being an independence sympathiser, or just as someone who might have information about GAM, the Aceh Independence Movement. People held on this basis seem to be treated as badly as if they were actual GAM fighters. This BBC story cites a new Human Rights Watch report into the routine torture of Acehnese detainees by Indonesian soldiers.

The Human Rights Watch report is online here, and in .pdf format here.

LIFE ON THE RUN FOR THE HMONG IN LAOS
BBC World showed a disturbing documentation this week of a recent incident in Laos, in which one of the small bands of Hmong (who have been living a precarious existence for years, trying to avoid the Lao soldiers by constant movement) had an unfortunate encounter with a military patrol. On this occasion, a videotape record was being kept of the small group's perpetually nomadic life on the run. At a particular encampment where they had felt relatively safe, a small group of five set out on a morning to forage for food. Four girls and a boy, all under 16. The camp heard the shouts, heard the rapes, and then the gunshots. How fortunate that the group itself wasn't detected by the soldiers. When it was safe to go to their children, all had been slain.

I found only a short account of this on the BBC site, but the report on BBC World was quite extensive. It showed a lot of the original video, and spent a lot of time interviewing the Hmong man who with one other, split from the fugitive group to make a difficult and very dangerous trek to get the tape out of the country. His plea for the world to help them was heart rending. Maybe the tape will have an impact with somebody who matters. The pained bleatings of the "Lao People's Democratic Republic" spokesman quoted on that page sounds just exactly like the communist Chinese officials when cornered on abuse of Tibetans or Falun Gong people. The video was "doctored" he says. Amnesty just wants to "mudsling and wreak havoc on my country." It's all just an effort of "bad people to cause public disorder and accuse our government." And never forget the ubiquitous, "groundless fabrication". Yawn. If you've heard one spokesman of a "People's" Republic, you've hear them all.

I notice that the only BBC web story on this that I found, was dated Sept. 14, but the broadcast was just last week. They do make short videos available to view online, this should really be one. Amnesty will probably have more, as will Hmong International Human Rights Watch.

LINKED: KERRY CAMPAIGN, BURKETT AND SEE BS
Whether the farce of the forged documents was simply a case of plain old sloppy negligence (or just that "we let our guard down" as one CBS figure termed it - and which could be read with an interesting secondary interpretation) cannot continue to explain the behaviour of various CBS figures. The producer of the infamous 60 Minutes II episode, Mary Mapes, persuaded one of the top Kerry campaign officials, Joe Lockhart, to contact the long-evident loony, Moore-ista brand Bush-hater Bill Burkett, who was holding the forgeries and later gave them to CBS. Burkett has been easily researched through his many writings on Democratic activist internet fora, and he is known to have offered to "sacrifice everything" in order to ensure Bush's defeat. He bragged of having "reassembled Bush's military records", although it's generally accepted that he is not smart enough to have created them.

But aside from the question of who actually engineered the passing of these forgeries to this gullible patsy for further distribution, not to mention the issue of "journalists" advising and facilitating a presidential campaign party operative, I'm extremely curious about the original motivations of some of the "media workers" involved here.

A small sidetrack here. For a long time, I didn't even bother paying attention to the arguments for the existence of a strong bias in the mainstream, "respected" media. These arguments were just the deluded rantings of the "vast right wing conspiracy" after all. But at some point I found the slanted reporting to be too much to ignore (I suppose when they started leaning opposite to my own readjusted views). I suppose I stopped ignoring the evidence of bias -- and becoming more willing to read and listen to a wider variety of views -- within a few short months of September 11, 2001. The America led liberation of Afghanistan from a sick, medieval theocratic dictatorship, was a watershed for the generally "progressive" media, which seemed to consolidate its "progressiveness" more than ever. Of course the Operation Enduring Freedom was derided immediately by the "left-leaning" parties and organisations around the world (including within France and Germany, even though those states which were onside with that operation), but in short order the mainstream media were emboldened by all this popular anti-American "quagmire" talk that they largely joined in unreservedly.

The more this bias annoyed me, the more likely I was to notice it; the more pervasive it seemed to be, and the more willing I was to listen to those who had been pointing it out all this time, while I had been writing them off as cranks. So, perhaps as penance for past unwillingness to look at the whole picture, MSM bias has become an interest of this blog. So it's with great interest that I watch while the backgrounds of some of the principals in the story begin to dribble out in bits here and there, including this little account of Mary Mapes' (Rather's producer for the forgery deal) earlier antics:

Kerry campaign officials confirmed again on Wednesday that Mapes arranged a phone call between Burkett and Kerry adviser Joe Lockhart. . . . It is also not the first time that Mapes has agreed to be a go-between in a controversial setting. FOX News has obtained a letter written to Mapes by the warden of a high security federal prison in Colorado.

He accused the CBS producer of concocting a scheme to help secretly pass information between convicted white supremacist Peter Langan and another federal prisoner, a violation of federal regulations. "Phone monitoring reveals that you agreed to this request," the letter reads. "Your attempted misuse of the special mail privileges placed members of the public at risk."

The warden of the prison then revoked Mapes' correspondence, telephone and interview privileges with the high security inmate.

Jeff Fager, the executive producer of 60 Minutes, is on record singing the praises of Mapes. But Fager should be well aware of Mapes' past scrapes with the Bureau of Prisons, because he's among those copied in the letter from the Colorado prison warden.

Mapes had been working on her project of proving that Bush skipped out of Guard duty, going AWOL and so on, for the past five years. Burkett must have seemed like an angel answering her prayers. And a lot of other prayers as well -- check the coordination of the Network, the Party, the Campaign, the separate advertising groups, the launch of "Operation Fortunate Son" -- with an almost machine-like precision timing -- in the fascinating whodunnit, The Case of the Phony Memos .

- posted by Agam @ 6:45 AM 0 comments